10 Most Exciting Things About Timothée Chalamet’s Upcoming Bob Dylan Biopic

There’s a lot to be excited about when it comes to A Complete Unknown, the upcoming Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet as the iconic legend of folk music. With Walk the Line director James Mangold at the helm, Dylan’s legacy is in safe hands as it will catalog his rise in the Greenwich Village folk scene up to his controversial choice to go electric in 1965. This brief but fascinating period in Dylan’s career reflects the beginnings of his status as the spokesman of his generation and his later rejection of that title.

While Dylan enthusiasts have been speculating about the film since it was first announced, the trailer for A Complete Unknown has revealed plenty of new information for audiences to get excited about. With a life as profoundly interesting and uniquely mysterious as Dylan’s, there’s plenty of ground to cover within the four-year period between 1961 and 1965 that will be reportedly depicted in A Complete Unknown. For new listeners and long-time fans alike, there’s a lot to be excited about when it comes to A Complete Unknown.

10 A Complete Unknown Will Showcase Bob Dylan Pre-Fame

A Complete Unknown will begin in 1961

A Complete Unknown will begin with Bob Dylan’s arrival in New York in 1961. This is an exciting prospect for Dylan enthusiasts because, although there have been plenty of documentaries and content based around Bob’s early years, A Complete Unknown will give viewers a glimpse into this folk legend before he found success. Bob’s early years as an ambitious 19-year-old trying to make a name for himself in music is an era rife for exploration, as it was the last time he knew what life was like before being dubbed the voice of his generation.

As songs like “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are A-Changin’” perfectly captured the cultural zeitgeist of the 1960s, it’s easy to forget that Bob was still a just bright-eyed kid who never expected to gain a reputation as a truth-telling, almost messianic figure. It’s hard to overstate Dylan’s impact on popular culture during this era, and witnessing his transformation into a superstar will be fascinating. A Complete Unknown will showcase Dylan in the years before cameras started cataloging every moment of his life and, in the process, give insight into the man behind the myth.

9 Icons Of The Greenwich Village Folk Revival Scene Will Appear

A Complete Unkown features several notable names

Although Bob Dylan has since delved into blues, rock, and even reggae styles of music throughout his long and illustrious career, A Complete Unknown primarily deals with his rise in the Greenwich Village folk music scene. This means many icons of this era will appear in the upcoming movie, with Scoot McNairy portraying Woody Guthrie, Edward Norton cast as Pete Seeger, and Monica Barbaro playing Joan Baez. These figures are essential to understanding Dylan’s early career, and to see their influence on Bob’s life depicted onscreen will be fascinating.

The singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie was one of Dylan’s primary influences, and Bob idealized him. Bob even visited Guthrie in hospital toward the end of his life and penned the tribute “Song for Woody” that appeared on his debut album. Pete Seeger was a folk singer and social activist who supported Dylan’s protest music during the early 1960s. While Joan Baez was a contemporary of Dylan’s, the two often sang together and even had a brief romance that will surely be depicted in A Complete Unknown.

8 Timothée Chalamet Is Doing His Own Singing

A Complete Unknown will feature Chalamet singing Dylan’s music

With a voice as distinctive and iconic as Bob Dylan’s, A Complete Unknown needed to get his singing style right. With Timothée Chalamet cast in the title role, many were apprehensive about him having the skillset to portray such an idiosyncratic singing style, especially as his songs from his previous musical Wonka couldn’t have been any further removed from the folk stylings of Dylan’s earliest era. However, these worries were put to rest when Chalamet sang a convincing rendition of “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” in the trailer for A Complete Uknown.

This was an exciting moment of relief for those nervous about Chalamet’s ability to pull off Dylan’s distinctive drawl in A Complete Unknown. Luckily, Chalamet walked the fine line between mimicking Dylan’s unique mannerisms while not falling into the overly nasally characteristics of the worst Bob parodies and impressions. Chalamet captured the essence of Dylan’s singing while simultaneously making it his own, which bodes well for the upcoming biopic.

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7 Sylvie Russo Is Based On Suze Rotolo

A Complete Unknown has renamed an important character

Those who have been looking for details about A Complete Unknown since it was announced quickly spotted that Elle Fanning had been cast in a major role as Sylvie Russo. However, this name was not previously associated with Dylan’s early career, although it was speculated that it could refer to Bob’s girlfriend, Suze Rotolo, whom he dated from 1961 to 1964. Then, in an interview with Rolling Stone, director James Mangold confirmed that Slyvia was in fact simply a renamed version of Dylan’s real-life girlfriend.

Mangold spoke of Rotolo’s importance in Bob’s early career and said that she represented one of the most significant people in his life who knew him before he became a musical icon. As one of the few characters in the movie who isn’t a celebrity, Mangold felt it was appropriate to rename the character and not subject Suze to the scrutiny that could come with being named in the film. However, the importance of Rotolo in Bob’s career cannot be understated, as she inspired some of his best songs and influenced his political beliefs (via The Independent.)

6 James Mangold Is Taking A Different Approach From Walk The Line

A Complete Unknown takes a unique approach to Dylan’s influence

A Complete Unknown is directed by James Mangold, whom music lovers will know as the filmmaker behind Walk the Line, the fantastic Johnny Cash biopic. Walk the Line was a major success that featured an extraordinary performance by Joaquin Phoenix as Cash, although it was also quite formulaic in the way it presented the country legend’s life story. Luckily, Mangold told Rolling Stone that he’s taken an entirely different approach to his Bob Dylan biopic and that the two music icons’ films required different processes.

Mangold clarified that Cash’s life was “defined by his upbringing,” as the loss of his brother and addiction issues gave Walk the Line a “dramatic harmony with these psychological observations about him.” However, Mangold said, “None of that would be that easy with Bob” and that he didn’t want to turn him into a simple character who needed to be “unlocked.” Instead, A Complete Unknown will explore Dylan’s effect on those around him and highlight the “prisms and keyholes to different aspects of who Bob might be.”

5 Johnny Cash Will Appear In A Complete Unknown

A Complete Unknown features a familiar name from Mangold’s career

James Mangold already told the life story of Johnny Cash in Walk the Line, which made it extra exciting to learn that Cash would also appear in A Complete Unknown. Sadly, Joaquin Phoenix was now too old to reprise his role and help create a musical icon cinematic universe, and he will instead be played by Boyd Holbrook. Although many Dylan fans associate Cash and Bob with work they did together after the events depicted in A Complete Unknown, the pair struck up a friendship after Cash wrote him a letter commending his work on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan in 1963 (via Far Out.)

Cash and Dylan respected one another immensely, and the duo first met at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964. Together, Cash and Dylan sang a duet, “Girl from the North Country,” on Bob’s 1969 country album Nashville Skyline, and further music of the two together was included on The Bootleg Series Vol. 15: Travelin’ Thru, 1967–1969. With so many aspects linking the two musicians, learning Cash will appear in A Complete Unknown is an exciting prospect.

4 A Complete Unknown Will Showcase Dylan’s Controversial Choice To Go Electric

A Complete Unknown will explore one of rock musics most significant moments

While A Complete Unknown will deal with Dylan’s rise in the Greenwich Village folk music scene, it will also catalog his highly controversial choice to ‘go electric’ at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. This was one of the most significant moments in rock ‘n’ roll that had a ripple effect throughout the music industry. To many folk pursuits, Dylan’s decision to go electric felt like a betrayal and a rejection of his reputation as the spokesperson for his generation.

Looking back with the power of hindsight, Dylan’s electric controversy was the natural progression of his career, and he continued to grow and develop as an artist. However, this also signaled Dylan’s move away from political songwriting to a more abstract and poetic lyrical style, which upset some listeners. While some audience members booed his performance, and he was later infamously called “Judas!” by an angry fan (via UCR), to see how this controversy is depicted in A Complete Unknown will undoubtedly be exciting.

3 A Complete Unknown’s Trailer Hinted At Bob’s Motorcycle Accident

A Complete Unknown has alluded to events past what it’s depicted in the film

A Complete Unknown will track Bob Dylan’s career until shortly after he went electric at the 1965 Newport Film Festival, meaning plenty of significant events from his later life will not be featured. However, the trailer for A Complete Unknown has hinted toward an important event that Dylan enthusiasts will know well. As the trailer showcased scenes of Dylan carelessly riding a motorcycle with Sylvie Russo, it’s impossible not to think about Bob’s notorious 1966 motorcycle accident (via Far Out.)

At just 25 years old, Dylan’s motorcycle crash purportedly almost killed him, and he used the incident to take a step back from the spotlight after tirelessly releasing seven records in just over four years. While there are no official records of the crash, Dylan claimed to have broken several vertebrae in his neck and retreated to his home in Woodstock to recover. This was the end of an era for Bob, as he did not tour for the next eight years, and it will be exciting to see how A Complete Unknown alludes to or portrays these mysterious circumstances.

2 There’s Plenty More Material For A Sequel

A Complete Unknown only deals with a short period in Dylan’s life

Part of the appeal of A Complete Unknown is that it deals with a very specific moment in the life of Bob Dylan as it tracks his rise in the folk scene and eventual disillusionment from it as he turns electric. This fascinating era encapsulated Dylan’s iconic status and the way he cemented himself as among the greatest singer-songwriters who ever lived. However, there’s a lot more to his story than that, and if James Mangold and Timothée Chalamet were interested, the door could remain open for a sequel.

A Complete Unknown’s narrative will end in 1965, which means there are still several significant eras from Bob’s life that could be explored in a potential follow-up. From Bob’s return to touring in the mid-1970s with his legendary Rolling Thunder Revue troupe to Dylan’s born-again Christian phase from 1979 to 1981, Dylan is an enigma wrapped up in a mystery whose life stories could inspire an entire sprawling franchise. While nobody involved in the production has alluded to A Complete Unknown sequel, there’s certainly no shortage of material.

1 Bob Has Personally Approved Of The Film

A Complete Unknown features Bob Dylan as an executive producer

Perhaps the most exciting thing about A Complete Unknown is that Bob Dylan himself read the script and approved the film. In his interview with Rolling Stone, James Mangold stated that he spent time with Dylan and that the two had discussed the movie in depth. Knowing that the man who inspired this story and has been so protective of his legacy over the past 60-plus years gave his blessing to A Complete Unknown will help put apprehensive viewers’ minds at ease.

Before production on A Complete Unknown began, Mangold said that when he first sat down with Dylan, he was asked what the movie was about. Mangold told Bob that it was about a guy who was “choking to death in Minnesota” who left his friends and family behind to reinvent himself, make new friends, build a new family, become phenomenally successful, and then “starts to choke to death again — and runs away.” Reportedly, Bob took this all in with a smile and said, “I like that.” If that seal of approval doesn’t get viewers excited, then nothing will.

Sources: Rolling Stone, The Independent, Far Out, UCR, Far Out

A Complete Unknown

A Complete Unknown is a biographical movie that follows a young Bob Dylan as he integrates with New York and catches the eye of the folk singers in the area, eventually propelling him into stardom.

Studio(s)

Searchlight Pictures , The Picture Company , Automatik Entertainment

Distributor(s)

Searchlight Pictures

Main Genre

Biography

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